A-suckle at the Winter’s withered paps:

Not such as when announced by thunder-claps

And ringed with swords of lightning, she would ride,

The haughty victrix and the mystic bride,

Clad splendidly as never Sheba’s Queen,

Before her marching multitudes of green

In many-bannered triumph! Grudging, slow,

Amid the fraying fringes of the snow

The bunch-grass sprouted; and the air was chill.

Along the northern slopes ‘twas winter still,